Shine
by HeliciaxRomione
Summary: Hermione Granger is a talented young singer struggling to make it big in New York City. With plenty of will and determination, a voice like an angel, and the help of a handsome nightclub DJ, she will quickly learn that the roller coaster ride to success is as treacherous as it is glamorous. Will Hermione find out that fame isn't all that it's cracked up to be?
1. Beginnings

"Ladies and Gentleman, Monica Granger!" a man said over the speakers of a pub.

Monica Granger was a muggle-born witch and a gifted singer. Almost every night, she would sing for everybody and they would cheer her on all the time.

Out of the corner of her eye, her 10 year old daughter, Hermione Granger, was sipping a cup of milk where the bar was.

After minutes of performing, she felt a little dizzy. A man in the crowd remarked that she was drunk again. The music stopped.

"Come on sugar, help your mama out!" she said to her daughter.

"Everybody, that is my daughter over there!" she said proudly. "She's gonna be a really big star one day. Come on, sugar. Come on, baby. Don't be shy, come on."

Hermione was hesitant to get up and sing. She felt her little tummy ache.

"You guys are in for a real treat. This little girl can sing. Ain't that right, John T.?"

"Yeah!", he replied.

Hermione finally got up and started to slowly walk on stage, everybody's eyes were on her.

Monica smiled, "All right. Give her a hand, come on."

The crowd applauded. Everybody's gazes turned to smiles and she felt complete.

"That's my sweet pea!" her mother said.

"Do it, baby!" a man shouted.

Hermione made it up the stage.

"Take your time, girl" said a woman.

Her mother gave her the microphone and kissed her forehead. "Come on baby. Anybody ever hands you a mike you sing. Come on. Just pretend it's you and me. From the bridge."

Without hesitating, Hermione poured her heart out into the song. Vocalizing and singing every note perfectly. Everybody seemed to be astonished by how little Hermione had a big voice. Once the song ended, everyone in the pub applauded.

"Told you she could sing, didn't I?" her mother laughed. "Y'all can do better than that! Come on, come on, come on!" The audience roared with applause.

They later walked home and stopped outside the house. "You remember what mama told you?"

Hermione nodded, "Mm-hmm"

Monica knocked at the door and a man came out. "What are you doing here, Monica?"

"Look, I got fired. I can't even feed her!" she said.

"I told you never to come by here" he said rather harshly.

Monica crossed her arms. "She's your child too."

He took out money from his pocket and gave it to Monica and soon, they left.

Back home, Hermione watched her mother sleep in the couch with a cigarette in her hand. She took it out of her hands and pulled a blanket over her. Hours later, Monica lights another cigarette.

Hermione soon woke up to smoke and started coughing.

"Hermione!" Monica shouted. She ran to her mother and in seconds, they were outside. There was a big fire and the firemen were on the move. Hermione cried at the sight of their home burning down.

When the fire ambulances left, Monica and Hermione sat on an old porch when a car stopped in front of them.

Monica hugged her daughter tearfully. "I love you, oh God."

As soon as Hermione and her pet cat went inside, her mother crouched beside the car window. "I'm gonna have to say good-bye to you, baby."

Hermione began to tear up. Her mother continued. "I don't know how I'm gonna do that. Gimme your hand. Gimme your hand."

Hermione couldn't hold in her tears. "I don't wanna go mom."

"I know baby. But I will come and get you as soon as possible. I promise. Okay? I love you Hermione. They're taking you away just till I get better. I don't have a choice. I'm sorry."

The driver soon took her away from Monica as she looked back.

As soon as they arrived at the foster care home, the lady led her into the play room. "I think you'll feel at home here. Welcome to Eaglebrook. Hermione, come on over here with me for a moment."

Hermione took a seat at an empty table. In the distance, two other girls stared at her.

"Look, Angelina. There's a new girl."

The lady with Hermione patted her, "Okay, baby, you stay here. I'll be back in a minute."

The two girls approached her, "You a Pureblood?" the redhead asked.

Hermione shook her head, "I'm mixed."

"This one here's Pureblood" the brunette remarked.

"But I don't care!" the redhead protested.

"I'm Angelina, this is Ginny. What's your cat's name?"

"Crookshanks."

"Can I pet it?" Angelina asked.

Hermione nodded and smiled. "Yeah, sure."

Angelina giggled, "He's so cute."


	2. All My Life

10 years later, Hermione, Angelina, and Ginny live in New York City. They are now club dancers. They decided to relax in the dressing room after they were done with having fun. Other people were sitting and drinking while talking to their friends.

A tall man with black hair and a blonde woman approached them.

"You shouldn't have worn leopard!" Angelina said to Hermione.

She scoffed, "Whatever. It's leopard night."

"How y'all doin'?" the man asked politely.

Angelina smiled, "Good."

Ginny simply responded, "Fine."

Hermione was pretty suspicious about the man, although she didn't want to just assume that because he was a little intimidating.

"I was watching y'all out there. Y'all look pretty good." he commented.

Angelina bragged. "Well you know, we try."

"Y'all sing?"

Angelina nodded. "Yeah. Little bit."

Ginny spoke up, "Dance. I do choreography. She does wardrobe."

Angelina hesitated, "Some of the choreography. Everything."

The woman beside him muttered, "Okay."

"We might have to tone your look down a little bit, but you wanna be in a group?"

"Like a singing group?" Hermione asked amazed.

"Yeah, a little dancing in the background."

Ginny smiled, "That's good. That's good baby!" she exclaimed as she high fived Angelina.

"I'm cool with that." Angelina laughed.

"Yeah, I'm feeling it!" Ginny said.

Angelina's eyes were wide. "When you wanna start? When? You know-"

Hermione bit her lip. "Right now we're doing our own thing. So, thank you. but we're a little bit busy."

Later, they left the club and walked down the sidewalk. Angelina was trying to reason with Hermione on her decision. "You got Severus Snape in your face, girl! I don't get it."

Ginny agreed. "I know it's crazy!"

Hermione sighed. "Whatever."

Ginny got in to reasoning her as well. "Most people would be dying to get some respect from someone like him, okay? Right? And you-"

Angelina interrupted, "The broke bitch. The broke bitch! She don't care!"

"You know what? You really wanna sing backup for that freak?" Hermione asked them.

"Hell yeah!" Angelina barked.

"I'm sure she can really sing." Hermione joked.

"I didn't say all that. She can't sing." Angelina remarked.

"You have an amazing gift, and you gotta use it. Your mom's gave you this gift." Ginny assured.

"What?" Hermione and Angelina asked in unison.

"Why would you bring up my mom? There you go doin' this!" Hermione asserted.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, okay? We need the money and you know we need the money."

Angelina persisted. "Hey, hey, hey, please Hermione, please? All we gotta do is stand in the background and go "ooh ooh" or however it go and get paid!"

Angelina and Ginny began tackling Hermione and begging.

"Come on, please. We gotta do this. You know you gotta do this."

"Please Hermione, please!"

Hermione yelped. "Ah! Alright, stop! Okay! Okay!" she finally gave in.

The next day in the recording studio, the woman that was with Snape sang the song they were going to produce. She was not the best at it, she was off-key through the song.

Snape stopped the music, "Hey, Hermione."

Hermione looked up to him from inside the studio.

"Can you repeat that verse that Lavender just did?"

Hermione motioned to Lavender.

"Yeah. Just for the backup."

"Okay."

Snape turned to the person mixing the music. "Turn Lavender way down. Bring Hermione all the way up."

Hermione began to sing the verse beautifully, hitting all the notes and singing different octaves. Snape was amazed and decided to use her voice for Lavender.

At a different nightclub, loud funk music was playing all around. Dancers everywhere and people having a blast. The DJ was especially causing the hype. His station had different records of different music genres.

A man with bushy curly hair walked up to the DJ, "Here's the single Lavender's gonna be performing tonight, man."

"Who's this?" The DJ asked dumbfounded.

"Lavender, man. You know her. Severus's girlfriend."

"This is Lavender? This doesn't sound like her, man. She must have been putting some hours in with a vocal coach, man."

"Fresh, right? Fresh."

The DJ played the tape and danced to it. "Let's hear it for Lavender!" he announced, motioning to the stage.

Lavender began singing the song although Hermione's voice was the one singing on the track. Angelina and Ginny were there with her as backup singers and danced with Lavender.

After the performance, the girls were hanging out back stage. The DJ walked in, "Hoo-hoo! Oh, man! That- That was great!"

"Thanks. Did you really liked it?" Lavender asked.

"Lavender, I had no idea you could blow like that!"

"I had no idea you were so interested in how good I could blow." she said suggestively. Ron chuckled.

Hermione and her friends rolled their eyes. "Can we get out of here?" she asked.

"Please!" Angelina remarked.

Hermione nodded, "Thanks."

A blonde photographer came by. "Hold it, girls. Can I take a photo of the four of you?"

Lavender scoffed. "Oh, you don't need them. They don't matter. They're just backup."

Hermione raised her eyebrows. She began to sing the sing in her face as she left. Ginny and Angelina followed her, giving looks at Lavender.

Just as they were about to leave, the DJ ran after them. "Hey! You in the hat! Can I talk to you for a second?"

Hermione looked back and looked at her friends, unsure of what he wanted.

"Excuse me, ladies, but I gotta talk to her."

Angelina left smirking as Ginny followed giggling. Hermione smiled at the ground.

"That was you singing, right?" he asked.

Hermione smiled and said nothing.

He clearly knew the truth. "Oh, man, I knew it! I knew it wasn't Lavender! He's been ghosting you."

She was emotionless. "What do you mean ghosting me?"

"Using your voice for Lavender's."

Hermione shrugged, "Yeah, but you know what? I'm having a good time so-"

"Hell no. Hell, you can't let him do that. You have got a beautiful voice. You can't let Snape use the best of you."

Ron really wanted to get Hermione noticed and couldn't believe the audacity of somebody using her voice.

"What makes you think that's the best of me?" she asked questioningly, her hands crossed.

"There's- There's more? There's better? I want some of that."

Hermione chuckled. She found him charming. He had blazing red hair and eyes to die for.

"What's your name?" he asked confidently.

"Hermione."

"I'm Ron, like, Ron Weasley."

"I know who you are."

His eyebrows perked up, "Oh, yeah?"

She nodded, "Yeah. I've heard a lot about you, Ron."

"Well, listen, don't believe everything you hear."

Hermione nodded, "Okay."

"Cone here. I wanna show you something. Come on."

He took her arm and led her the opposite direction.

"Where are we going?"

"Let's go, I'm not gonna bite you." he teased.


End file.
